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If you deal with technology vendors, you know that “ROI” – “return on investment” – is usually a claim or a prediction. If the solution offers it, you can achieve it.

Even when there’s proof of significant ROI, it’s soft proof, as in, “…improved efficiency by 12 percent.” Yes, efficiency is good. It’s even better when you can quantify it. But often, the claims are still one step short of results that mean something on the bottom line, like increased revenue or reduced costs.

In this example, the solution is HP Project and Portfolio Management Center, or HP PPM Center. The solution is a suite of products for aggregating and prioritising strategic and operational demand. It delivers top-down portfolio planning supported by bottom-up detailed project plans, enabling IT to rapidly identify and prioritise projects to sustain alignment with corporate goals.

The first ROI analysis is a food retailer with a US$57 million IT budget. According to Gantry, before implementing HP PPM Center more than two years ago, the company faced serious IT challenges. Paper-based processes offered limited visibility. There were no established project methodologies. IT investment was not aligned with corporate strategy and budget forecasting was inaccurate.

Using mathematical models, Gantry completed a before-and-after comparison that revealed:

• A 57 percent reduction in IT change order requests
• An 83 percent increase in the efficiency of the financial sign-off process
• A 100 percent improvement in budget accuracy

But Gantry analysts consider measurements such as these intangible and probe for results tied directly to the bottom line.

In this case, they found them.

• Increased budget accuracy reduced budget overruns by more than US$1.5 million
• Reduction of change order requests saved US$1.2 million in labour costs
• Improved project identification and prioritisation, along with more efficient approval and signoff, helped IT avoid more than US$18.8 million in expenses for non-strategic projects

Combined with other bottom-line results, the total tangible benefit, less the cost of the solution, yielded a hard ROI just under US$16 million, according to Gantry.

In the second example, the analysis of a smaller company in the packaging and materials space yielded similarly quantifiable results: US$277,500 in avoided expenses, US$27,600 in reduced premiums for IT contractor fees, US$60,000 in reduced IT labour costs and more – remarkable returns considering HP PPM Center had been in place for only a year.

Gantry’s disciplined analysis concludes that HP project and portfolio management works. If you’d like to learn more about the solution that achieved these hard results, visit the HP PPM Center Web site or contact your HP Software sales representative.